Empathy and the Internet
Gregg Knauss wrote this iPhone app called Romantimatic to, hold your breath, “remind the distracted or forgetful to text nice things to their significant other”! As you might suspect, the app attracted a fair amount of criticism, wrote Knauss , “often in the language of the Web, by which I mean the most hyperbolic terms possible”. Knauss wondered why there was any reaction at all? “It’s not evil, by any sane definition of the word. It’s not hurtful. It does not do damage to the user or to others. Everyone who has argued so vehemently against it could have just as easily quietly noted its existence, decided it wasn’t for them, and moved on, without moral obligation or qualm.” He also felt that a similar reaction would have never have come if he had written an app that advised people to eat less. And so he asks: “Why is one type of self-improvement aid worse than the other?” And concludes that: “Those people who don’t need the help feel free to judge those who do. Th...